An Easeful Death (31 page)

‘In one of the basement rooms of the old power station, one of the few that still lock—it’s virtually soundproof.’

She looked again at the hunks of machinery, realising they must be the heavy cradles on which the turbines had once rested. Two silhouettes of silver and bronze misted the floor nearby. Her throat clenched, her mouth went dry. It was a struggle to speak and when she found her voice, it was high and squeaky. ‘Is this where you killed them?’

‘Clever, eh?’

You can handle this, just keep him talking, don’t get him angry; just keep him talking.

‘Why? Why murder those women?’ she asked, unable to control the tremor in her voice.

He stretched his legs out on the floor, propped his back against the wall and spoke in a tone of restrained rationality. ‘I don’t like killing, but I don’t dislike it either. It was just something that had to be done, self-preservation if you like. You blowing the whistle on me started an investigation that would’ve unveiled a lot more than a few bribes. You got me sacked, but that was preferable to being an ex-cop spending years in the slammer.’ He continued on, matter-of-factly, ‘This is your fault, you know, all of it. If not for you, everyone would still be alive. If you hadn’t threatened me that night, none of this would have happened.’

‘You killed the prostitutes?’

‘With a little help from Keyes and Thrummel behind the scenes. They had as much to lose as me. We were in business together, setting up our own stable. Once you started things rolling it became obvious that the whores were going to grass us up, they had to be silenced.’

‘And you drew the short straw, you did the silencing?’

‘They’re more squeamish than me, it took me a while to persuade them that knocking the girls off was the only alternative.’

‘So you did the dirty work and carried the can, and they went on working.’

Tye laughed. ‘Not quite true, but I can see what you’re getting at. You want me to get all hot and bothered over them. You want me to smack myself on the head and say to myself, “Duh, Tye, she’s right, it’s the boys I should be blaming, not poor little innocent Stevie.” Good try.’ He leaned forward, chucked her under the chin and winked. ‘It was all worked out very amicably. I went from one business to another and in retrospect this one is working out a lot better than the first ever could. Keyes and Thrummel owe me big time, they’re only too happy to help me out.’

‘Some kind of gold scam, you’re into gold.’

‘You’d be amazed at how lax security is in the small mines. It doesn’t take long to remove a sizeable amount when you have an understanding supervisor.’ Tye rubbed his chin, musing. ‘Not sure how long he’ll last, but; the mine’s a dangerous place to work. He might find himself knocked on the head by a falling beam if he doesn’t pull himself together. Got in quite a panic after your lot questioned him.‘

‘He’s the one who gave you an alibi. Said you were working at the time of the Royce murder.’

‘Sure. He wouldn’t want the world to know I was in Perth fencing our mutual takings, would he?’ He paused and looked pensive. ‘Maybe I should be grateful to you for blowing the whistle on me after all. I always knew you’d make me my fortune one way or another.’

Stevie didn’t know what to say next and that proved to be a mistake. The short silence gave him time to brood.

He grabbed her face again and his voice rose. ‘But have you any idea what it’s been like for me over the past few years, being sacked, seeing the one who shafted me doing the job I loved, rising meteorically up through the ranks? Didn’t you learn your lesson the last time?’

The pressure on her face increased. Gripped with panic, she tugged and twisted at the duct tape bindings. He let go of her face and clamped his hands around her shoulders, pinned her arms and buried his face into her neck, alternately sucking and nipping at her skin. She froze when she realised the effect her exertions were having on him and shrank as far back as the wall would allow. The skin of her neck continued to burn, long after he pulled away.

‘You and I have lots of catching up to do,’ he said, breathing heavily.

She flopped back against the wall, relieved to see his anger tempered again. ‘Tell me more about the murdered prostitutes.’ She had to keep the conversation away from herself.

‘I made the slappers look like the work of a sexual pervert. I even took “trophies”, like the book says, though I chucked the hair and jewellery into the river. It was touch and go for a while, my hair on that first one could have been my downfall. Just goes to show it’s not what you know. Baggly cleared that little glitch up for me and after that I used the wetsuit. The paint’s an added security, the chemical properties in it destroy just about anything else I might’ve left behind, skin cells, etcetera. I thought the commissioner’s hair on Royce’s body was a good touch too, don’t you? Keyes stole his hairbrush for me—my old partnership comes in very handy when I need things done from the inside. I’d’ve liked to have seen Baggly’s reaction to that little trick, I never told him about that, wanted to keep him on the edge of his seat, the cowardly perverted creep. He knew we had to cover up the KP murders, but he had no idea what else I was up to.’

‘So you’ve not only got Keyes and Thrummel in your pocket, you’ve got Baggly too. Clever,’ Stevie said.

Tye smiled. ‘Yeah. Then after years of thinking about you and the mess you’d got me into, I decided it was time for the so-called serial killer to make a return. There’ll be no one else after you, Stevie. What’s really funny is how easily you were all fooled, even the great De Vakey, and it was his books that gave me the idea in the first place.’

‘But why kill Royce, why Birkby?’

Stevie wondered if what she saw was a genuine shadow of regret passing over his face or just pretence. He shrugged. ‘I didn’t want to kill Linda, she was just a kid. I made sure it was quick and she didn’t suffer. I borrowed Baggly’s car, put on one of my old uniforms. Said her dad had taken a turn for the worse; that I’d been asked to pick her up and take her to the hospital to see him. She was quite a talker when she wasn’t scared shitless, her uncle was a retired cop y’know, she was very proud of him. We’d got to know each other quite well. I visited her in the cafe whenever I could, always made sure she served me. She was flattered. I flirted with her, she was an easy target: flirtatious, naive and trusting. I needed to kill her you see, to disguise the identity of my true target.’ He paused and ran his tongue over his lips. ‘You.’

The pounding of her heart seemed to come to an abrupt halt. She felt light-headed, as if her blood had already started to pool at the lowest point of gravity. She had to keep him talking. ‘Easeful Death. I never knew you were into poetry.’

‘Came across it in a poetry book when I was at school and always remembered it. Believe it or not, I hate to see things suffer, hated what your dad went through.’ He clicked his fingers. ‘Short and sharp, that’s what death should be. The girls were drugged up to their eyeballs, never knew what was going on. I did them a favour, I mean, who knows how they would’ve died when their time came.’ He paused. ‘See, there’s a lot of things you don’t know about me, Stevie, I’m a deep thinker, I’m a sensitive kinda guy. You should have given me more of a chance.’

For a moment anger overcame the fear. ‘You knocked me around, you raped me for God’s sake! What was I supposed to do?’

‘Mitigating circumstances, you were threatening me, you had to be taught a lesson. But it didn’t do much good, did it? You still didn’t learn; you still dobbed me in.’ He brushed her face with fingers rough as hessian. ‘But we had some good times didn’t we, babe?’

‘Yeah, good times till you realised you couldn’t get hold of my house, till you started your corruption racket in Vice, till you heard about my pending promotion, wanted those kinky photographic sessions—what was that all about? An attempt to get some kind of power over me?’

‘But you wanted to do those photos, deep down, I know you did. You were always so uptight, that was your problem, so busy keeping up with the boys you were afraid to let your feminine side shine. I posed Linda for you, Stevie. It was you I was thinking about. I even took the risk of coming back to take away the props, just so it would be perfect for you. Thought it might strike a chord—and it did, didn’t it? That’s exactly how I tried to get you to pose for me, remember?’ He sighed and shook his head. ‘Again, this all boils down to you.’

Stevie felt the tears well. She struggled against her bonds.

‘Then of course there was Birkby and Sparrow’s book—that fucking journalist never let up, the stupid cow. I saw her plotting and planning with the albino. I knew what they were up to. I followed her from the cafe and grabbed her in the back car park. The chloroform knocked her out before she even blinked.’

‘Oh yeah, the chloroform—where did you get it?’

‘There’s this vet I know. We did a swap, his chloroform for my ice—another little business of mine, appreciated by Thrummel too, by the way. The vet decided he needed a bit more variety in his life—you can only go so far with animal meds. What a dickhead, eh?’ Tye shook his head. ‘There’s just no accounting for taste.’

‘Why did you go to all the trouble of getting Michelle into the store? That was some kind of risk wasn’t it?’

‘Hey, why do they climb Everest? And of course there was the special bonus of putting your precious Monty in the frame for it. You gotta believe me, I didn’t get much pleasure in killing her, but I had to kill someone else, anyway. Bronze, silver, gold—get it?’ He drew in a breath and let it out slowly through thin, smiling lips. ‘Kinda fun really. I might not have enjoyed killing the others, but I know I’m going to enjoy you, long and slow. You’ll be my exception to the rule: you get the gold medal, baby.’

Stevie’s heart kick started with a jolt and she jerked her chin from his hand. ‘But Sparrow survived.’

‘So what? I learned about the safe while the bitch was begging for her life. You and Sparrow caught my boys by surprise. Bad luck the paddy wagon turned up before they could finish him off.’

‘He knows the truth.’

‘Without the documents, what can he prove? The woman was the brains behind the book. People might have believed her allegations, but who’d believe a ranting, white-faced idiot like Sparrow? Hell, even Baggly was confident enough to keep him on as a cleaner.’ He smiled. He was enjoying himself. ‘Any more questions? Any more delaying tactics? You know I have all the answers, Miz Super Cop.’

He was onto her, but still she racked her brains for more questions. Last time she’d seen Monty, he was planning on visiting Peter Sbresni. She took a punt. ‘What about Sbresni? Was he just a fall guy or is he in on it too?’

‘Sbresni knows nothing about me; he was following Baggly’s orders, and Baggly’s so fucking terrified of what I’ve got over him, he wouldn’t dare breathe a word.’

She didn’t know what else to say, she only knew that she had to keep stalling him. She grasped at one last straw. ‘You act like you have a conscience, Tye, that you didn’t really want to kill anyone. Where does Izzy come into this, how will it feel for the rest of your life to know that you’ve killed the mother of your child?’

She closed her eyes against the venom in his face. Oh God, why did she have to bring up Izzy?

‘Bitch! What do you take me for, a complete moron?’

His blow cracked her head back into the wall. She felt a slash of heat where the stitches burst open and a thick tide of blood streamed down the back of her neck.

Tye pushed himself up from the floor and paced. ‘I’ve spent the last ten minutes answering your questions. Now it’s time you answered mine.’

She stared back at him blankly. For several seconds he regarded her in angry silence. Then his face began to relax and, to her surprise, his laughter started bouncing back at her from the walls of the cavernous room.

‘You have no idea what’s so funny, do you?’ he said, recovering his breath. ‘The super fucking detective doesn’t have a bloody clue. Christ.’

Stevie swallowed and shook her head.

‘Mumps.’

He’d lost her. ‘What, what are you talking about?’

‘Shooting blanks. It probably would’ve come out eventually if you’d ever given me a chance. Now don’t tell me in your heart of hearts you never questioned your child’s paternity. Hell, your mother sure knows Izzy’s not mine; I’ve seen it in her eyes often enough—Jesus, the kid doesn’t even look like me!’

She looked at him, shocked.

He raised an eyebrow. ‘You mean she never breathed a word? Maybe she thought you deserved to be a dupe, you can be a prickly little bitch. Funny though, I never took you for the screwing around type. It was Monty, wasn’t it? It had to be. You always did have a thing for him. It made framing him all the more sweet, made the killing of Michelle that bit easier.’

No. This had to be another of his lies. She wanted it to be true though. Her throat was too dry for words.

She struggled to fathom the implications of what he was saying. When she’d discovered she was pregnant, she had no doubt it was from the rape. The violence had left an indelible impression on her mind of powerlessness and self-hatred. The encounter with Monty had been so brief, a stupid drunken impulse in response to his tenderness, a small measure of unexpected comfort at the end of that ghastly week with Tye.

Tye sighed and shook his head. ‘I never understood how you could be so blind, you were so convinced the kid was mine. Course I didn’t mind.’

‘Why? So you could keep the link with me?’ she finally managed to croak.

‘I knew you were putty in my hands so long as Izzy was in the equation.’

A sob pressed against the back of her throat, she couldn’t let it escape. No tears. But her internal battle proved pointless when she realised that for once in his life, Tye might be telling her the truth.

She’d read of cases in which extreme fear caused physical blindness. Could the same be said about mental blindness? Perhaps deep down she’d known all along that Monty was Izzy’s father. Had she suppressed the knowledge out of fear of losing him, thinking that he’d only ever regarded her as a little sister? She was convinced he’d been repulsed and ashamed of their brief intimacy. Even during their fleeting but passionate lovemaking, she’d known it was the alcohol running things, and that it was Michelle he’d had in his mind.